I hate to say it, but investing £500,000 in the lottery now seems like a better plan than investing it in Hood industries...

Exactly!!!!!

Some sensible ideas from Julie (and sensible comments from Mike!) there. I hope someone inside the club has at least some of these in the pipeline.

But who knows with this bunch!

. . .. hmmmmmm £109,000,000 estimate for Tues






what am I thinking!!!

the pledge was a waste of time & money - eventually its admin & reform

I am sure I am speaking for the majority of Leeds fans when I say good luck..............our rivalry has given me so many ups and downs and great memories! Long may it continue

Almost a relief to move from a time of speculation to having a better idea what is needed. You would hope the new BoD is actively considering all of Juliebulls suggestions plus some.

Looking at the rest of this seasons home fixtures I don't think there are many where we could expect large away followings. So maybe another thought would be to give current season ticket holders the option to "donate" at each of the remaining home games. I think I am right that if you "donate" rather than just buying a ticket the club does not have to pay VAT. If 500 ticket holders did this for the rest of the season that's about £50k

A lot of the usual shock horror, skeletion in the cupboard, it was all the last lot that done it honest guv posts.

However if you do a quick scan of the amounts being quoted it kind of adds up to the situation when the emergency pledge was first announced. It seems clear whilst the season ticket deal was no doubt launched with the intention of building the crowd up again it both massively underpiced the tickets and failed to get anywhere near the 15,000 needed - the result being loss and negative cash flow of about £100k a month. Back before Easter the Hoodies said £1m was needed - half from the pledge, half from "investors". Well we the fans and wider fans of the sport kept our side of the deal - and whatever you feel the club is in a "better" position thanks to the pledge. However the other £500k doesn't seem to have materialised, so if you need £500k plus another £100k for each remaining month of the season surprise, surprise you need over £1m.
I am not sure exactly how much we get from Sky - but think if we had 7500 season ticket holders the real price should be about £300.
I think it was Juliebull who first pointed out that the financial structure of the Bulls really are very simple and whowever has taken nearly a month to understand them is either a crap accountant or is busy charging by the hour!

That is what we were told about buying the 'virtual' tickets, which are just a donation really.

To be honest mate, I'd suspect that the majority of time has been spent on how we get through the future rather than looking at the past. I think your right to say it shouldn't have taken so long to find out how much we owe and to whom, but finding and then bringing on board the sort of people who are willing to 'invest' in a sports club is going to take more of the time imo and the current financial climate doesn't help.

i think you should sell your best players raise 500k and prepare for a couple of poor seasons that looks the only way out but i suspect your chairmen wants you to go into administration its the easy way out

Makes you wonder why bod are willing to wait until the Eleventh hour to avoid admin. Is it for fear of expulsion from Superleague?Is the RFL a major creditor to the bulls and if so have they said if you go into admin that they have no choice but to revoke their license?

Well this could be a test for the new management - can they organise a gate and a bucket?

I will put my hand in my pocket if they can

I keep reading these posts on administration - the easy way out, the only option etc, etc. Yes it would change the shareholders but more practically while existing creditors could be iced it still leaves the following "little issues"
1) Working capital for the rest of the season.
2) You still need a viable business plan for future seasons
3) Say goodbye to credit
4) Players become free agents
5) Points deduction - could effectively end our interest in the playoffs and the money that would bring
6) Someone at Redhall has a rush of blood and we find ourselves several leagues down the ladder

I know some Wakey fans keep saying administration ended up being good for them, but what if a Taffy Millionare had appeared and they were looking forward to welcoming Gateshead to Bellevue?

I am not for a minute saying raising £1.2m is easy but I still think a better option than admin

I would agree but the problem is probably collapsing time frames I am afraid

Does anyone understand why the RFL lease deal seems to have changed from £700k to £1.25m + VAT?

I'd guess (though obviously I've no actual knowledge) that the old management left it largely to the staff to organise; directors come up with the ideas and staff put it into operation.

I suspect that a couple of directors would be pretty overwhelmed with all that anyway, apart from which they are probably better off spending time on pursuing the other investors. If that's how it worked before then the staff already have hands on experience. Much previously was done online though,(the virtual ticket) rather than cash, which despite having to pay card fees they felt was the better way to do it.

If it comes to it I'll gladly join you Btw..

No. Because it didn't.

The £700k was the loan existing from the RFL.

The £1,250k (as now confirmed) was the sale value of the Odsal lease.

So we actually had a further cash injection of £550k from the RFL? Plus the £250k VAT?

They still just don't get it, do they?

Administration gets rid of historic debts that the business cannot afford if it is to continue. Administration presupposes there is a viable business going forward, hamstrung by a big overhand of debt.

Except we do not HAVE any big overhang of debt. This new "six figure loan" is the only new figure to emerge (and I suspect "six-figure" is the usual euphemism for "about £100k"?) and the VAT dates only to January 2012 and we knew about it and the due date (if not the precise amount) at the time of the pledge. The nearest we have seems to be the image rights tax settlement, and if the numbers I heard - £250k payable over three years - are anything like right, that by itself is hardly a justification for administration of a business with costs of £4m or more?

The other possible financial reason for administration would be to get out of an unduly onerous contract. The only contracts I could imagine being large enough to have such an impact are the Odsal short lease with the RFL, and player contracts. And surely the RFL would have a LOT to say about us trying to get out of either?

Our problem - and it comes across loud and clear from what Mr Coulby said yesterday - is that we seem to have a very substantial shortfall of income relative to routine operating costs. Our Wakey friends have never explained precisely how administration would solve THAT particular problem.

Of course. Except, at the time, we all assumed the cash injection in January was actually well over £1m, since we were not aware of the existence of the £700k loan - or of any RFL loan, other than the existence of a floating charge registered in January 2011 when it seems a loan, or at least part of it, was granted.

Where this money all went is the "black hole" that has perplexed me for some weeks now, and that I have referred to regularly on here.

Most of the collection work itself, and the manpower, was organised and carried out by Bullbuilder members at the club's request, not the club. The club did not even have enough buckets.

Lets hope we don't kick the bucket

Detailed refute of the current board claims by Hood in League Express tomorrow.

Simple really and doesn't require a rocket scientist to work it out.
A substantial amount of regular expenses that the Bulls have are paying out are the massive debts that have been accumulated, administration would remove this cost from the NEWCO so therefore require less income in to survive.